All-Japan Band Association

The All Japan Band Association (AJBA) (全日本吹奏楽連盟/Zennihon Suisōgaku Renmei) is an organization that exists solely for the purpose of facilitating an enormous annual music competition among Japanese wind bands. This competition has largely promoted the concert band idiom (called buraban in Japanese), but in recent years AJBA has also included separate entries for marching band and smaller chamber music ensembles within its national competition.

The AJBA competition includes categories for elementary school, middle school, high school, university, company, and community bands. It is an extremely competitive three-tiered contest, with local, regional, and national levels of competition. In some categories - middle school for example - the school bands from the most competitive urban districts that manage to reach the national level of competition are statistically among the top 0.5% in all of Japan.

Fumon Hall

The renowned Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra is usually hired to make the definitive premier recordings of the required pieces commissioned each year for AJBA's national competition. The final (national) stage of the competition is regularly held in Fumon Hall, an auditorium located on the campus of the Rissho Kosei Kai religious organization in central Tokyo.

World's Largest Music Contest

The All Japan Band Association annual contest appears to be the world's largest music competition in terms of the number of active contestants,^[1] with approximately 800,000 competing musicians in more than 14,000 bands.^[2] The other largest music competitions in the world are the Eurovision and American Idol competitions in the field of pop music singing. While these do not exceed the AJBA competition in terms of the number of competitors, they may be larger in terms of the number of individual entrants, operating budgets, or fans (as these contests involve popular music, are marketed internationally, and enjoy a much higher global profile).

AJBA Contest Divisions

Banner celebrating a school band's participation at national level

The following chart displays a breakdown of competing wind bands in terms of region and category:

1 October 2007 statistics

Divisions	Grade School	Junior High School	High School	College/University	Company	Community	Total by Region
Hokkaido	117	373	226	24	7	115	862
Tohoku	256	742	397	34	12	194	1,635
E.Kanto	221	1,026	525	29	12	227	2,040
W.Kanto	45	775	336	27	5	149	1,337
Tokyo	34	583	274	29	14	113	1,047
Hokuriku	23	210	119	16	2	69	439
Tokai	96	846	502	27	13	188	1,672
Kansai	62	934	531	47	11	337	1,925
Chukoku	76	538	295	39	6	111	1,065
Shikoku	17	254	126	10	2	54	463
Kyushu	132	774	450	44	14	222	1,636
National Totals	1,079	7,058	3,781	326	98	1,779	14,121

Since the average Japanese wind band has around 45 to 55 members, the total national figure probably exceeds 800,000 contestants on any given year, and according to the most recent figures (2007–2008) may even exceed 1 million.

See also

• Buraban
• Wind band
• School band
• Education in Japan
• Music of Japan

References

1. Hebert, D. G. (2008). Alchemy of Brass: Spirituality and Wind Music in Japan. In E. M. Richards & K. Tanosaki (Eds.), Music of Japan Today. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp.236-244.
2. Togashi, T. et al., (2007). Ichi on no nyu kon!. Tokyo: Kawade Shobo Shinsha.

Further reading

• All Japan Band Association Official Website
• David G. Hebert (2012). Wind Bands and Cultural Identity in Japanese Schools (Dordrecht and New York: Springer Press).
• David G. Hebert (2008). “Inside the World's Largest Music Competition: Application of an Ensemble Ethos Model,” Cultural Diversity in Music Education (CDIME-IX) - conference proceedings (Seattle, March 20–23, 2008). .
• David G. Hebert (2007). “Kokusaiteki Shitendemiru Nihonno Suisogaku,” (tr. Japanese Wind Bands in International Perspective). Japanese Band Directors Association Journal, Vol. 13 (pp. 35–46).
• David G. Hebert (2005). Music Competition, Cooperation, and Community: An Ethnography of a Japanese School Band. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Washington. Ann Arbor: Proquest/UMI.
• David G. Hebert (2001). “Hoshina and Ito: Japanese Wind Band Composers,” Journal of Band Research, Vol. 37, No. 1 (pp. 61–77).
• Miho Takekawa. (2011). Japanese Band Culture: How it is Sustained. Doctoral dissertation, University of Washington (ProQuest Dissertations and Theses).
• UW Wind Ensemble Breezes Through Japan
• Tim Reynish on Japanese band repertoire
• Bravo Music, international distributor of Japanese wind band compositions, recordings, videos
• Philip V. Bohlman (2004). The Music of European Nationalism. ABC-CLIO [scholarly discussion of the Eurovision competition].
• Nielsen ratings for the American Idol competition